Welcome to the start of the 2025–26 school year! A new school year is always a time of renewal, reconnection, and possibility. I hope your summer gave you rest and energy and, most importantly, time to make memories with your children and as a family. I am excited to see our students, families, and staff returning to campus, ready for another year of learning, discovery, and growth. Some of us have arrived at NIS for the first time, others have returned for another year. All of us are united in forming the community that is NIS.
This year is especially meaningful because we begin with our newly adopted values at the heart of all we do: Safety, Responsibility, Belonging, and Growth. These values, rooted in the voices of our students and community, provide the clarity and conviction needed to bring our mission to life. Together, they form the foundation on which our school can thrive.
Safety is our starting point. Not only physical safety, but the emotional and identity safety that our students so clearly voiced: the safety to set boundaries, to speak freely, to be fully themselves. From that foundation grows responsibility; the call to use that freedom wisely, to act with integrity, and to take ownership of one’s actions and impact. When safety and responsibility are lived in harmony, a true sense of belonging becomes possible; a community where every person feels seen, respected, and essential. And in such a community, growth flourishes. Not just academic growth, but growth of self, purpose, and potential. These values do not stand alone; they build on each other, guiding us all to inquire, inspire, and impact in the fullest sense.
It has been wonderful to see the values becoming lived ideas in our community this year. These values are not abstract. They are the anchors that help us to make, defend, adjust, and reflect on the decisions we take as individuals and as a school. Below are just a few of the examples of how we have come to live our values as the year has begun.
Secondary Assembly: It was a special moment welcoming our secondary school students to our opening assembly and introducing them to the new values (which they had shared in creating!). We encouraged them to think of values as an anchor that can guide their choices. For example, loyalty to a friend is important, but if that loyalty conflicts with safety or responsibility, then safety and responsibility must take priority.
Similarly, identity is vital in our diverse and inclusive school, and we value each child’s right to be who they want to be. Yet, at the same time, your right to your identity cannot come at the cost of the rights of others to also find their own identity, and in this sense, the need for belonging wins when our community is at stake. These reflections led to rich discussions and offered students a practical way to see values as something to live and apply, not just flags hanging in the East Cafe.
In the Primary School, the values were woven into opening ceremonies and class reflections. Teachers introduced the values, and children were invited to make their own meaning, expressing in their own words what safety, responsibility, belonging, and growth mean to them. It was inspiring to see even our youngest learners beginning to articulate how these values shape their classroom communities and daily interactions.
A true community garden, shaped by children’s ideas and created and cared for in partnership with adults. Here, our youngest learners show responsibility for their environment, while the garden itself nurtures the growth of identity and of community through play.
Moments of safety and challenge in equal measure. Students swam, kayaked, climbed, ate, and played together, forming bonds of belonging while learning responsibility as classmates. The result is growth, both as individuals and as grade-level communities. Always with an eye on safety!
Through our School Development Plan, teachers are embracing restorative practices that put relationships at the center of teaching and learning. This is belonging in action—helping every student feel part of our community with responsibility for the impact of their actions on that community. At the same time, our work on pedagogy, the science of how students learn concepts, skills, dispositions, and knowledge, is a commitment to learner growth, ensuring learning is deep, effective, holistic, and enduring. The IB provides the framework, but it is our teachers who are the engine to ensure learning success.
The list could go on and on. Whether it is the heightened security we have implemented for campus access (thank you for always remembering to wear your lanyard tag or bringing photo ID!), health-aware policies surrounding snacking for Elementary students, or our new device policy rooted in a belief that it will result in increased safety and belonging as a community, there are so many examples of how our new values are driving conversations and impacting decisions.
Of course, we are a diverse and collaborative community, and we understand that even as we share these values, we will not always agree on how best to implement them. How best to nurture growth, develop responsibility, balance risk-taking and safety, or build belonging? It is this diversity of thought, openly shared and discussed as a community, that makes us stronger. This is what makes NIS special, and this is the excitement at the start of every new year: wondering what we will create together in the year ahead!
When you visit the NIS campus, you will see our values displayed. One day, you may even see them on T-shirts or coffee cups! But they are not just for display. They are for life. They are the compass for how we make decisions, how we solve problems, how we learn from one another, and how we shape our ever-evolving community. They guide our discussions and dialogue, frame our thinking, and make us better as a community.
And that is an exciting future!
On behalf of all of us at NIS, I wish our entire community a wonderful year ahead. By living our values of safety, responsibility, belonging, and growth, we are set together to achieve so much more by the time summer comes again!